Rising Airline Crash Fatalities Making 2014 Even More of an Aberration

By The New York Times

July 24, 2014

Last week, after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine, The Upshot published a chart of air fatalities and noted that:

There have been only six years since 1946 with fewer than 600 fatalities: 1955, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Because it is still only July, the number of deaths seems likely to rise above 600 this year. Yet there still have been only nine other years with fewer than 800 fatalities.

With two more crashed airliners this week, we’ve updated that chart. The number of fatalities now stands at 757.